About the Book
Paragaea: A Planetary
Romance is the story of the Akilina "Leena" Chirikov, who
shortly after launching from Star Town in the Soviet Union,
finds herself thrown into another dimension, a world of strange
science and ancient mystery. There she meets another timelost
person from Earth, Lieutenant Hieronymus Bonaventure of His
Majesty's Royal Navy - who left home to fight the forces of
Napoleon and never returned - and his companion, Balam - outlaw
prince of the jaguar men. Bonaventure is interested only in
adventure and amusement, while Balam only wants distraction
until the day he can reclaim his throne. Having little better to
do, they agree to help Chirikov find a way home. Along the way,
they encounter ancient androids, cowboys riding pterodactyls,
Atlantean wizard-kings, and lost cities of bird-men.
In the tradition of the
planetary romances of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Leigh Brackett,
Paragaea is in fact a "hard" science fiction adventure,
grounded in the latest thinking in the fields of theoretical
physics, artificial intelligence, genetics, and more. There is a
rigorously rational explanation behind all of the unearthly
elements, with most of the "magic" the protagonist encounters
being the products of a long forgotten, transhuman,
post-Singularity culture that has long since disappeared.
Chirikov, a strictly rational Soviet Cosmonaut, interprets these
as best she can, using the framework of early 1960s science.
Being a dutiful Soviet, she wants only to return home to Earth,
to inform her superiors about what she has discovered, but she
soon finds herself developing ties to her companion Bonaventure
that make her wonder whether she really wants to go home at all.
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350pp
ISBN: 1-59102-440-4
Hardcover (6" x 9")
$25
ISBN: 1-59102-444-7
Trade Paperback (6" x 9")
$15
May 2006
Cover Illustration: ©2005 Jon Foster |
